


To the Ear

by Jalules



Category: Homestuck
Genre: Accents, F/M, First Crush, Fluff, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-12-14
Updated: 2011-12-14
Packaged: 2017-10-27 07:52:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 891
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/293416
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Jalules/pseuds/Jalules
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When you first meet the humans live and in person, the thing that really strikes you is their voices.</p>
            </blockquote>





	To the Ear

When you first meet the humans live and in person, the thing that really strikes you is their voices. Nothing much else has been left to the imagination after watching their entire lives condensed into a convenient viewport timeline clip show, and talking to the assholes online throughout this nightmare of a game has given you at least snippets of their personalities. You’re not surprised to see Egbert grinning at you, a little uneasy but way too excited to really be put off by all the pointy teeth and bright horns raging at him, nor are you surprised to see Strider and Lalonde regarding you with a calm ambivalence, both saving up a barrage of sarcastic comments sure to make your blood boil, or that Harley hangs behind the others, smiling all quietly pleased and viewing the unfamiliar technology around her with impossibly wide eyes, like she’s forgotten that you’re there.

It’s when they begin to speak that you are thrown off, mainly by just how different each of them sound. From each other, that is.

Within your own group there isn’t a lot of differentiation in accents. Aside from Eridan’s over the top glubbing, and the similar pronunciation that occasionally slips past Feferi’s tongue, the most difference you display when speaking is in your quirks, or caste dialect. And when the time came to give yourselves a crash course schoolfeeding in the English language so you could communicate with the dumbasses you were hoping to troll into non-existence, the computer programs kept you all in sync, didn’t allow for any variation in word pronunciation.

With the humans, it’s like they’re from four different worlds entirely. When Egbert opens his stupid bucktooth mouth you stand blinking at the quickfire stream of English words that come at you, too fast to grasp them fully, but you hear your own name and quirk your ears, fascinated at the slower pull over vowels, the lilty lift at the end of each stream of speech that he seems entirely unaware of. He sounds like he’s asking questions too often with the way his voice tips up like that, but you can hardly get a word in to answer him. He purrs your name pleasantly from the start to the middle, cuts it short at the end- Krrrkat.

Lalonde’s voice is clear, strong, like glass and wind chimes, and when she laughs it’s like an old time Alternian movie star, light and airy. But just like a movie star you can tell she’s faking it, forcing it. She’s got a nasal undertone to all her words and it becomes all too obvious when she turns to speak to John in hushed tones, when she greets you with your name- Kharkahyt.

Listening to Strider speak makes you want to punch him. More than before. The polar opposite of Egbert’s non stop chatter, Strider speaks slowly, so painfully, achingly slowly, that a single sentence leaves you twitching. For as much as he seems to think on his feet and spit out a steady stream of insults capable of leaving you something close to speechless, in normal conversation he drags over each word, taking his sweet fucking time getting a phrase out. It could just be another piece to the puzzle that is being “cool,” or “ironic,” whatever the hell that means, but you get the impression he doesn’t even realize when he stops in the middle of saying something, considers, continues like he didn’t just pull a single R into about thirty fucking minutes of sound. You might be exaggerating a little. But when he says your name, it’s all strung out and lazy- Kuhhhrkaht.

And then there’s Harley. When she’s finally done staring into space, tinkering with the surroundings and giggling over you have no fucking clue what, she finally introduces herself and it’s sort of shy, missing the exuberance and profanity your online conversations have evolved into. That, you think, is a personality thing and not a voice thing though, because her voice is nothing short of charming. You had always imagined her squeaking and mewling her way through words like Nepeta, snorting a little because she does that when she laughs sometimes, you can tell that even from a viewport. But while her voice is pitched pretty high it’s not quite at Nepeta’s level, a little more smooth and easy.

From what you understand of human accents, the further away from each other two people are on Earth, the greater the difference in their accents. And while you still can’t wrap your head around how three people who live in the same fucking land mass sound so different from each other, you figure Harley’s drastically different speech pattern makes sense, as her island was pretty damn far from her friends’ homes.

She sounds so different, so strangely familiar, and you try to put your finger on it.

She sounds like…

Like…

Like Trolivia Newton John in “Wherein a pair of young trolls enter an unlikely flushed romance during a dim season leave of absence and, upon re-entering training sessions are faced with the tribulations created by their opposing groups of friendenemies and lifestyle choices. Several song and dance numbers, one car race, appearance by one popular music idol-”

“Hi Karkat!”

Kahkat.

_“You’re the one that I want~”_

_“Oo oo oo, honey~”_

You are instantly smitten.


End file.
